These are politically disturbing times. Bismarck is supposed to have once described politics as the art of the possible, but now in this country, with Brexit, politics has become the art of the impossible. For my whole life we have enjoyed relative stability with the two main parties occupying positions close to the centre ground of British political thinking. Brexit has changed all that. We are now seeing the extremes chase an illusion.
To demonstrate how far we have come, The Daily Mail ran a story yesterday (HERE) covering a survey of Tory councillors which claims 40% would vote for Nigel Farage's Brexit party in the 2019 European election and 96% think Brexit has damaged the party. This is an absolutely stunning figure. Who are the 4% who think it hasn't?
This morning (HERE), John Gray in The Mail on Sunday reflects on the story and how: "The centre is disappearing and grave danger lies ahead". He also adds, "British politics is in a ferment unlike any this country has known for generations. In a paradoxical twist, the thwarting of Brexit is transforming the British political system into something more like that of continental Europe".
I agree that things are bad but his assessment is wrong. He claims:
"An orderly departure from the EU could have inoculated Britain against the forces that are fuelling the march of populism in so many European countries".
We are not told where Mr Gray has been for the past 25 years as UKIP rose from nothing to create and ride what has surely become a populist tsunami that threatens the whole of Europe. It is the EU which needs inoculating, not us. Britain caught and spread the disease, not the EU.
The majority of these local Conservative councillors (64%) voted leave in 2016 and in doorstep canvassing are now getting massive negative reaction to the impasse in parliament with most of the blame being directed towards the Tories. Having lead their constituents into the wilderness of Brexit they seem genuinely taken aback by the ungrateful reaction.
Farage is at the heart of it all. He has dragged the nation and the Tory party further and further to the right.
One councillor apparently said: ‘The Conservative Party is dead. It will take a strong leader to dredge it out of the mud’. And we all know who he's talking about - he would like Farage. I shudder when I hear people asking for strong leaders. Isn't this the way that nations who think they are being humiliated react? It happened to Germany in the 1920s when the people also thought the answer was a strong leader.
Among leavers there is the idea that we have been too soft in the negotiations. We should have gone in hard from the outset. For many older voters the echoes of empire are still loud. They remember the days when Britain had considerable influence, military bases across the world, a huge navy and air force and able to project power that carried real diplomatic, economic and military weight. There has not yet been a recognition of Britain's diminished standing - and it isn't the EU's fault.
It's always dangerous for any country to overestimate it's own strength.
Strong leaders are unpredictable men (they usually are men aren't they?) because they think the nations they lead are prepared to suffer, to make real sacrifices to realise the leader's dream, the one they have persuaded the population is in their interests, however insane it might be. Farage for instance, would see half the nation starve to get out of the EU.
Farage himself was in Nottingham yesterday, addressing the Brexit faithful (HERE). If ever there was a man to sow division it's him. I dearly hope his newly formed Brexit party does disastrously badly in the European elections. They will pick up some seats but if we can mobilise remainers to support Labour or the Lib Dems he may yet end up with egg on his face. Unfortunately there are still plenty of nutters about who think he is some sort of Messiah. He has placed a £1000 bet that Brexit will win the most seats. Let us hope he loses it.
I think it was Enoch Powell who said all political careers end in failure, but in the case of Farage his career started in failure and has been one long list of misfires and mishaps ever since. He has tried seven times to get into parliament and failed every time. UKIP is a shambles and his new Brexit party will soon descend into another. Anybody who thinks the answer to any problem is Nigel Farage is mistaken. Wherever he goes, behind him lays division, rancour, argument, ill-feeling, hatred, antipathy and bitterness. When historians look back on the disaster that is Brexit I hope they don't underplay his absolutely central role.
He is in his element knocking things down. Building something good for future generations though is another matter. He isn't bothered about the betterment of mankind. In fact I really don't know what he is in favour of since he never says. I assume this gives him plenty of scope to be against whatever anyone suggests.
Tom Watson, deputy leader of Labour, says a second referendum is the only way to beat Farage (HERE) but Jeremy Corbyn, an extremist of the left, is still sitting on the fence.
Brexit was supposed to herald a new era for 'global' Britain but up to now has only been a humiliation and threatens more embarrassment in the future. Jean Claude Juncker is quoted from a interview given to a German media outlet (HERE) where he says the EU can't keep extending the deadline for the UK.
It almost seems as if he's gently addressing an elderly relative with dementia who has lost his way doesn't it?
